The Online Photographer

The Most Interesting Photographers Pt. 2

I want to thank everybody who came up with nominations for “most interesting photographer.” There was little concordance, though—and most of the names that were mentioned, I could relate to as being genuinely interesting in some way.

I'm not going to say I could ever do this, because I know I have a history of too much ambitiousness and too little follow through. But I’ve always thought it would be a great idea to write a book along the lines of “Lives of the great photographers.”

Compilations of short biographies have a long an honorable history. Suetonius with his The Twelve Caesars and Plutarch with what I have always known as The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, and what I learned just this morning is really called Parallel Lives. (The book pairs short bios of a Roman personage and an earlier Greek counterpart, heightening their similarities. Rome was once the new kid on the block, hoping to associate itself with the older civilization.) There’s Vasari and his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects in the 1500s, and John Aubrey’s Brief Lives in the closing decades of the 1700s, which wasn’t really a book per se but rather a chaotic collection of notes and half finished pieces that had to be whipped into shape by later editors. In more modern times, I once read a collection of short bios of great composers, and Penguin commissioned a series of short biographies from a variety of writers that were published as separate little books. I owned and read many of them, and found the quality was highly variable. My favorite was the bio of Lincoln by Thomas Keneally, the Australian writer who wrote Schindler’s List.

I think the problem writing about photographers would be knowing where to stop. For days now I’ve been thinking of names, or thinking about names you suggested, and invariably I end up at “how could that one be left out?”

I guess photographers just lead interesting lives, that’s all.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2024 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

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A Modest Proposal

Political post. Please avoid it if you don’t wish to read it. The comments are hidden—I’ll see them, but no one else will. I may Feature a few, or I may not. I don’t want to dwell on this.

Charge!

I did get a bit of blowback on the topic of the Hahnel battery charger I wrote about. Some people feel it’s not a very good solution. Their reasons varied. Mine came, and I’m pleased with it, as I was pleased with the last one. But of course I’m not in charge of anyone else's choices. Everybody owns their own photography. For one thing, I don’t travel away from home every year—so it’s no wonder if I’m not the latest word on travel solutions. I haven’t been on an airplane in this decade. Transporting a one-pound battery charger in my aging Acura does not pose a weight problem.

I am curious as to the question of whether chargers with two contacts are actually inferior to OEM chargers that have four, because supposedly the extra two manage overheating. I put calls in to several manufacturers and even to Underwriter’s Laboratory, but so far, nuthin’. It’s unlikely I’d get through to anyone who really knows the answers anyway. Is it not possible that the base brick of the Hahnel manages overheating? I suppose I’ll never know. Most company contacts these days seem to be trained employees who are briefed on the most frequently asked questions but don’t have deep knowledge of the product. At least that’s better than Kodak in the old days. With them, if you were persistent, you could get through to the person who had the deep knowledge, but then they’d decline to speak to you on the theory that they might not have corporate permission to do so. (Friday afternoons were the best time to call. People were a little more relaxed with the weekend coming up. The most loose-lipped were employees who had just been fired! I kept my antennae tuned for those folks.) But I wish I could have back all the hours I’ve spent on the telephone in my life trying to wrangle information out of recalcitrant corporate employees. And so it goes.

While we’re still on the topic, let me just say that I have really liked and appreciated the newfangled more powerful batteries such as the Sony NP-FZ100 2280 mAh for the Sony Alpha a9 II, a9, a7R IV, a7R III, a7 III, a6600, and a6700, and the Fujifilm NP-W235 2200 mAh for the Fujifilm GFX100 II, GFX 100S, GFX 50S II, X-H2S, X-H2, X-T5, X-T4, and X-S20. The extra life per charge is luxurious.

Anyway, you do you. But if I could step back and offer a more basic and general recommendation, look into batteries and chargers when researching a purchase—it’s a pesky and involved process, but it might save you a little extra efficiency, capability, and even a little dab o’ cash along your journey. Mike drop!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2024 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

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Hahnel Cube Charger

I think Hahnel deserves a little attention from time to time. Camera makers, even for some pretty nice cameras, are skimping on chargers and cables as a way of saving money. A reader and friend just kindly donated a camera to the TOP (and Mike) stable, but without a charger. The last time that happened, I inherited a Hahnel ProCUBE2. It’s a third-party charger base that takes interchangeable plates for different kinds of batteries. I really liked it. When you travel you only have to remember to take the charger and power cord, nothing else; information is right there on a screen on the unit; and it charges one or two batteries at a time quickly and efficiently. I sent my first one to my son along with a camera for him to make videos with. So now I’m about to buy another one.

The Hahnel Cube came out in 2018 and got lots of awards and praise from reviewers at the time. But like all products eventually do these days, its marketing has gone stale and no longer gets attention. It still deserves attention in my opinion. I’m a fan.

But it’s a little confusing to buy. There are a variety of packages in different colors—one each for Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, Fujifilm, and Olympus, all with bases of different colors. What’s not immediately obvious when you’re shopping is that all the bases are identical, except for the colors. The plates that snap into the top are what customize the base for different batteries, and if you look around a bit you’ll discover that you can buy the plates separately. There’s a little hole in the side of the Cube, and you use a SIM card tool (one is included in the box, but any will do, or a paper clip or even a pen or pencil), stick it in the hole, and the plate pops out. Fit and press and a different one clicks in place. The fact that the base kits are labeled “Canon” or “Nikon” and so forth just means that the base comes with those plates.

It also comes with plugs for UK, EU, and US outlets, an AA charging plate (with one limitation—you must charge four batteries of the same kind at a time), and a car charging cable.

Another limitation is that they don’t make plates for every camera or battery. But do a little research to see if your battery is used by different camera brands. For example, they don’t sell a Sigma package for my Sigma FP (or fp—Sigma styles it both ways). But the Sigma BP-51 is the same battery as the Panasonic BLC12, so I just bought the Hahnel plate for that Panasonic battery, and I’m good to go for my Sigma camera.

While I’m on that subject, that same battery is also used for the Leica CL and the original Leica Q. But the Sigma version costs $40, the Panasonic version costs $60, and the Leica version costs $99! They’re all the same, except for the magic Leica dust on the Leica one. I couldn’t prove it, but it’s likely the batteries are all made by Panasonic in China. So if you’re in the market for extra batteries and don’t care to buy generic ones, you can still save some money by doing a little research to see if your battery is sold under different brand names.

As a final complication, neither Amazon nor B&H Photo has complete stock of the Hahnel stuff. I had to buy the plate from Amazon (less than $11), but the charger from B&H.

I didn’t search around for the best price on a base, but maybe you can save some money there too. At least one manufacturer, Manfrotto, sells the Hahnel ProCUBE2 base under its own branding.

Mike

UPDATE: Two things I forgot to mention: the ProCUBE2 also has a USB-A port that you can use to charge a phone or a third battery in the camera. It starts as soon as the batteries loaded directly in the charger are finished.

Also, John Sparks points out that Watson makes a similar charger that uses individual plates, so you can charge two different kinds of batteries at once. Of course, then you have to buy and carry two plates to charge any two batteries at once, but that’s probably not a big deal for most people. That one is the Watson Duo LCD.

Original contents copyright 2024 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

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Three Cylinders

I'm up and running on Hugh's loaner compute—thanks again Hugh. 

Just so everyone is clear, TOP will be running on three cylinders until Sunday the 10th—or maybe Friday the 8th if all goes well and the new computer arrives early enough. I can get on TypePad and work on the web, but I don't know how to do much else, and of course I don't want to mess around with Hugh's computer too much. 

Interesting
Just as an idle question to while away this Saturday evening, who would you say are the most interesting photographers in history? Interesting meaning fascinating or thought provoking, in any aspect—personal lives, significance, ideas and attitudes, accomplishments, whatever. This occurred to me when I was reading the article about Lee Miller in The New Yorker—"The Roving Eye" by Judith Thurman (I can't link to it, because this computer doesn't know I'm a subscriber. See what I mean about three cylinders? I could sign in, yes, but that would require going off to find my password. Lord knows where that quest would end up). It struck me that she is about as opposite from me as a human can get—and also that, although she is not one of the indisputably great photographers, she is certainly amongst the most interesting.

The others that seem to fit the bill for me are Avedon, Lartigue, and Brad Washburn. I'm still mulling it over, though. 

I have another post almost done (although it's on a dull subject), but I have to figure out how I'm going to manage links. I'll have to get to that in the morning, though, as it's late and I am almost out of steam!

Mike

Apple’s Camera Control Button

You might already be up to speed on this, but after a long tradition of removing buttons and ports from the iPhone, usually controversially—the home button and the headphone jack come to mind—Apple has added a button to the iPhone 16, and I tried it. With the phone in landscape (horizontal) orientation and the lenses pointed outward, the Camera Control Button (CCB) is on the top right side of the body, and—it’s really nice. It makes holding the camera horizontally much more comfortable, and puts the lenses at operator’s top left where they won’t get in the way of your hand. I like it. It’s so natural it gave me a strong sensation of, “why didn’t they do this a long time ago?”

Even better, the first press of the CCB turns the camera on.

A short press takes a photo and a long press starts a video. The button is of course multipurpose—it’s also a touch slider and can be used to set and adjust settings. A light touch brings you back to the previous control. And the button can also be used for various functions within different apps.

I didn’t sort out all the functions at the store. But the basic haptics are a radical improvement to the experience and the iPhone’s usability.

By all means check it out for yourself if you’re in the ecosystem and get a chance to try it. It’s a nice, sensible improvement.

Mike

Film Fridays

Thanks to everyone for the avalanche of comments in response to the film question. Several people pointed out that I do not have a strong track record of following through on my “I’m gunnas,” so maybe this doesn’t even matter. (I mean, look at me right now—here I am posting on Saturday, and I’m supposed to take Saturdays off. But I didn’t post yesterday, so…).

But here’s what I’m gunna do: starting no sooner than two weeks from yesterday, I’ll post film content as “Film Fridays.” And I apologize for not naming who suggested that; but I’m typing on the iPad and my workflow is severely hampered. Here’s the rub, though: Just some Fridays, not every Friday.

And then, as always with a blog, we’ll see how it goes. I feel like I’ve tried a thousand things over the years. Only the spaghetti that sticks stays on the wall.

So that’s the idea.

Mike